Olmsted's Original UPI Series

2504 posts categorized "Current Affairs"

There are winners and there are losers. And I am in the fight. I'd like you to join me in creating a victory.

In one corner is "The Panic Virus" by Seth Mnookin, which I consider to be an unfair attack on our community and our concerns. The very title itself suggests that there is nothing much to worry about. As Franklin Roosevelt might have said, "The only thing we need to panic about is panic itself."

And yet, when even conservative estimates proclaim that 1 in 50 children have autism (oh for those simpler times when it was only 1 in 150!), and researchers like Dr. Stephanie Seneff of MIT proclaim that if current increases continue than 1 in 2 children will have autism by 2025, it seems like there is definitely something to panic about.

Which is where my book, "PLAGUE: One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism and Other Diseases" comes in. Because you see, I do think there is something to panic about. I am the boy crying wolf as the wolf rampages through the town.

I am writing to you concerning the death of Alexander Spourdalakis, a Chicago teenager who had severe autism and inflammatory bowel disease. A complaint was received by the Joint Commission from the autism advocacy group, Autism Is Medical (AIM), in March 2013. This was prior to his death while he was an inpatient, restrained in Loyola Hospital. As far as I am aware and to all intents and purposes, no action was taken by your organization either at that time or since, in response to this complaint.

Alex’s harrowing story has been made into an award winning documentary, Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis? produced by Autism Media Channel (AMC; autismmediachannel.com). The documentary, which is enclosed as a DVD for you to watch, speaks for itself. This production was reported recently on ABC 7 Chicago on at http://abc7chicago.com/news/abc7-exclusive-alexs-story/439605/. From January, the DVD will be available nationwide on Amazon, and in Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Walmart etc.

We will not let this matter rest until the safety of individuals with autism in US hospitals and their access to appropriate medical care is guaranteed. It is essential that the Joint Commission conduct a thorough investigation of these matters. Two women face life imprisonment in Cook County Jail on charges of First Degree murder, largely because of what we see as gross failings on the part of hospitals accredited by your organization. AMC will be following up on this story as it goes to trial and we will be dealing with the official response as part of that follow up. Given the public interest we will be posting this letter at autismmediachannel.com.

Important decision issued this month from the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, completely upholding the state’s right to impose vaccination mandates and to withhold schooling to the unvaccinated in the event of outbreaks. Phillips_Per Curium Opinion_01072015

NICOLE PHILLIPS, individually and on behalf of B.P. and S.P., minors,DINA CHECK, on behalf of minor M.C.,FABIAN MENDOZA‐VACA, individually and on behalf of M.M. and V.M., minors,Plaintiffs‐Appellants,

— v. —

CITY OF NEW YORK, ERIC T. SCHNEIDERMAN, in his official capacity as Attorney General, State of New York, DR. NIRAV R. SHAH, in his official capacity as Commissioner, New York State Department of Health, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Defendants‐Appellees.*

* The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to amend the official caption in this case to conform to the caption above.1

Plaintiffs‐appellants challenge on constitutional grounds New York State’s requirement that all children be vaccinated in order to attend public school. Plaintiffs‐appellants argue that the statutory vaccination requirement, which is subject to medical and religious exemptions, violates their substantive due process rights, the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, the EqualProtection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Ninth Amendment, and both state and municipal law. On the same grounds, plaintiffs‐appellants argue that a state regulation permitting state officials to temporarily exclude students who are exempted from the vaccination requirement from school during an outbreak of a vaccine‐preventable disease is unconstitutional. The district court concluded that the statute and regulation are constitutional. We agree andtherefore AFFIRM.

I am currently at 29 reviews on Amazon for the book I co-authored with Dr. Judy Mikovits, PLAGUE - One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth About Human Retroviruses, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases.

The book by Seth Mnookin, entitled, The Panic Virus, which savages our community is at 114 reviews on Amazon.

I know the number of unique readers we have each week at Age of Autism. With our numbers, are we really going to let Seth Mnookin hold the floor with 114 reviews?

I understand the complaints. Dealing with our children who have autism is difficult. We are emotionally and financially drained. When we have free time we don't want to think about autism. It's just going to depress me anyway. I hear these complaints from my wife all the time. And I'll let you in on a little secret. Sometimes I feel exactly the same way.

Which is why I co-wrote PLAGUE. Because I don't want to feel depressed. I wanted to find the story of a scientist who inspired me with her intelligence and her courage. I wanted to drill down into the corruption of our scientific and medical research establishment so that I could figure out what could be done about it. And the fact of the matter is, besides the thousands of hours it took me to write and polish the story so it reads like a fast-paced detective story, it's going to take YOUREADING THE STORY and WRITING REVIEWS about it to change things.

Think about it. Seth Mnookin gets away with trashing our community and he's got just 114 customer reviews on Amazon. If just 1% of you joined the PLAGUE challenge we could crush him. I want that victory over Seth Mnookin by March 1, 2015.

TRACE AMOUNTS FILM SCREENS IN San Diego TO EDUCATE VIEWERS ON THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF MERCURY IN VACCINES

SAN DIEGO, CA – A new documentary Trace Amounts that details the harmful effects of mercury in everyday flu vaccines and the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) response will screen at Edwards Mira Mesa 18 on January 27, 2015.

Trace Amounts, a film directed by Eric Gladen, explores the science, evidence, and historically significant actions during the decade-long debate of vaccine safety. The film tells the story of Gladen’s personal experience with mercury poisoning, which he believes resulted from a mercury-loaded tetanus shot, and the research that lead him to learn of the global health crisis that links thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative, to the autism epidemic.

“Eric Gladen was vaccine injured as an adult and recovered from his injury. My son was vaccine injured as an infant. Eric Gladen speaks for my son and the countless other infants who couldn't speak at the time they were injured,” said Becky Estepp. "Mercury never should be allowed in anyone's vaccines, especially in infant's vaccines. They can't tell us how they are feeling.”

The film and its makers adamantly call for the removal of thimerosal from all vaccines, including flu shots in the U.S. and abroad. A portion of the film’s proceeds will support a newly formed non-profit organization, Go Mercury Free, which promotes the removal of mercury from a variety of products and environmental factors.

For many of us, the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 which established the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), otherwise known as the "Vaccine Court" has been an unmitigated disaster for the health of America's children. It is since the passage of this act that the rate of autism, allergies, and other auto-immune disorders has skyrocketed among our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.

Rohde does an admirable job of leading the reader through an easy to understand explanation of how this program which was supposed to give a quick resolution to those victims of vaccine injury morphed into a monster which benefits only the pharmaceutical companies.

The heart-breaking stories of many of the parents of vaccine-injured children are included in this book, as well as the nightmare of going through the vaccine injury compensation program. As difficult as it is to read many of these stories, knowing they are just a fraction of those in our country today, it is nothing less than a sacred obligation that we know them. In our pain is our strength.

The first known outbreak of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) took place during 1934-1935 at the Los Angeles County Hospital and affected 198 doctors and nurses during a polio outbreak.

300 doctors and nurses at the Los Angeles County Hospital were given an early polio vaccine developed by Dr. Maurice Brodie, as well as approximately 7,000 children. (Active Immunization Against Poliomyeleitis, American Journal of Public Health, February 1936) The vaccine was passaged multiple times through mouse brain tissue. (Attempts to Produce Poliomyelitis in Refractory Laboratory Animals, March 1, 1935, doi: 10.3181/00379727-32-7876)

In addition to the polio vaccine, the doctors and nurses were also given an accompanying "immune serum" to boost their response to the vaccine. This immune serum contained "merthiolate", otherwise known as thimerosal, as a preservative. (Use of Serum and the Routine and Experimental Laboratory Findings in the 1934 Poliomyelitis Epidemic, American Journal of Public Health, First read on September 3,1934)

It was during this time period that the first children who would go onto develop autism were born. These children were born to parents who worked primarily in the medical and scientific fields. Do you think these were the parents who would have been first in line to get a polio vaccine for their children? I do.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights... or more.

Autism now affects two percent of U.S. children. A once rare disorder is now so common that everyone knows someone with an affected child. Yet neither mainstream doctors nor government officials can tell the American public what is behind the staggering rise in diagnoses.

The Big Autism Cover-Up explores how news outlets downplay the impact of autism while backing the official denial of any link between the disorder and vaccines. Despite never honestly and thoroughly investigating the link, mainstream news sources continue to challenge those who question the safety of vaccines and the mounting evidence that an unchecked, unsafe vaccination schedule is behind the exponential increase in autism.

Anne Dachel has spent the last ten years monitoring how the press covers autism. She’s seen the media promote the unrelenting message from health officials that autism hasn’t really increased, that it is simply a matter of better diagnosing of a disorder that’s always been around. Meanwhile, autism remains a perpetual mystery and scientists continue to guess at the genetic and environmental triggers.

Officially there is no known cause or cure for autism. There’s nothing a new mother can do to prevent a baby that was born healthy and is developing normally from regressing into autism by the age of two. Despite this, officials rarely express concern and adamantly refuse to call autism a crisis. The Big Autism Cover-Up exposes this controversy in searing detail.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights... or more.

Public health officials state that vaccines are safe and effective, but the truth is far more complicated. Vaccination is a serious medical intervention that always carries the potential to injure and cause death as well as to prevent disease. Coercive vaccination policies deprive people of free and informed consent—the hallmark of ethical medicine. Americans are increasingly concerned about vaccine safety and the right to make individual, informed choices together with their healthcare practitioners. Vaccine Epidemic focuses on the searing debate surrounding individual and parental vaccination choice in the United States.

Habakus, Holland, and Rosenberg edit and introduce a diverse array of interrelated topics concerning the explosive vaccine controversy, including the ethics of vaccination mandates, corrupting conflicts of interest in the national vaccine program, and personal narratives of parents, children, and soldiers who have suffered vaccine injury.

Newly updated with additional chapters focusing on institutional scientific misconduct, mandates for healthcare workers, concerns about HPV vaccine development, and the story behind the Supreme Court’s recent vaccine decision, Vaccine Epidemic remains the essential handbook for the vaccination choice movement and required reading for all people contemplating vaccination for themselves and their children.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights... or more.

Over a decade ago, following a sharp rise in developmental disorders such as autism and ADHD, the mercury-containing preservative Thimerosal was widely believed to have been eliminated from vaccine supplies in the United States and abroad. However, dangerous quantities of Thimerosal continue to be used, posing a significant threat to public health and leading to a crisis of faith in vaccine safety.

In this groundbreaking book, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., examines the research literature on Thimerosal and makes a very clear statement about its potentially dangerous effects. In the past, the CDC, FDA, NIH, and AAP, as well as the US Congress, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the US Department of Agriculture, the European Medicines Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency have expressed concerns over the use of Thimerosal in vaccines. But despite the many voices calling for action, the media and policy makers have repeatedly failed to adequately address the issue.

Now, with Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, the science supporting the elimination of this toxic chemical from the world’s vaccine supplies, and its replacement with already available safer alternatives, is all in one place. Making this change should increase vaccination rates by restoring the trust of concerned parents in the vaccine program—a program that is so vitally important to public health.

(WARNING!! - To my deeply valued atheist readers, you might want to skip this article and come back to me next week where I will once again be deeply involved in the questions of this world. Thank you for your understanding.)

I've been thinking a lot about how we make progress with various advocacy groups against powerful enemies. I think of my heroes, people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela. These are my spiritual guides and I want to deploy the same weapons they used.

Chief among them is prayer. As a Christian I'm called to pray for my enemies, my real enemies, not just those people who kind of annoy me. Yes, I'm talking about the major bad guys who if I had my lawyer hat on I'd be calling for their prosecution for crimes against humanity.

I've always liked the formulation of Nelson Mandela (also a lawyer), calling for satyagraha, which means you speak the absolute truth, and ahisma, meaning you wish no harm on your enemies, and you actually want them to come to the fullness of understanding. It is a hard balance to find, but it is worth our time.

So, in the spirit of the season I am asking for prayers for our enemies, or as Gandhi might have said, "Those who are not yet my friends." Some of these people are not necessarily the big bad guys, but those who lack courage to fight for the truth. I have heard accounts and personally witnessed some of the people on this list saying things privately, that if they said them publicly, would be of enormous assistance to our cause. Let all of these people fulfill the dreams of helping humanity they had when they started their careers. My athiest friends act as if articles like this are easy for me to write, but I assure you, this is one of the most difficult things I have ever done.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights... or more.

The CDC’s bloated vaccine schedule has doubled since 1988, after the federal government gave pharmaceutical companies immunity from lawsuits. Autism and other childhood disorders like asthma, ADHD, juvenile diabetes and digestive ailments have skyrocketed. And parents are understandably nervous, desperate for objective guidance that takes those concerns seriously.

Vaccines 2.0 looks at the lengthy roster of today’s recommended injections, the documented risks that accompany them, and helps parents choose a schedule based on unbiased, uncensored, unconflicted science. From whether to get a flu shot during pregnancy--and how to avoid dangerous mercury if you do--to the Hep B shot within hours of birth, to the controversial Gardasil vaccine for preteens, Vaccines 2.0/i> provides the tools to decide for yourself.

The three sections cover: Why should you care? What should you know? What can you do? The exclusive Risk-Reward Assessment assigns a numerical score to each of the 14 recommended vaccines. Also included is information on learning to spot, report and treat side effects; talking to your doctor and finding a sympathetic one if you can't, and comparing alternative schedules if you decide to delay or skip shots. When it comes to your child, it's your choice. Vaccines 2.0 will give you the information you need to choose wisely.

The Ohio legislature pulled a fast one on their own citizens last week. Legislators announced that two bills that had been strenuously opposed by Ohio parents and health rights activists had been killed. Senate Bill SB 381 and House Bill HB 364 would have required all Ohio children in day-care, pre-school or Head Start to get every shot included in the CDC’s recommended schedule, none of which are currently required in Ohio. And they would have gutted vaccine choice rights by requiring a physician’s letter to exercise the currently unencumbered rights to medical, religious and conscience exemptions from mandates. Both bills were killed, but the language requiring the entire catalog of CDC recommended shots was inserted into another much larger bill, House Bill HB 394, which was quickly voted on and passed by both houses.

If Gov. John Kasich signs the bill all Ohio children in daycare and pre-school will be required to get injections for annual flu, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcus, chicken pox, diphtheria, hemophilis influenza type b, measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, pneumococcal disease, polio, rotavirus, and tetanus, none of which are required now.

The only course of action left now is to message, call, write and tweet Gov. Kasich and ask him to veto HB 394. Please saturate Gov. Kasich’s communication pathways with polite expressions of your opposition to the bill. Here is Gov. Kasich’s contact info:

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights... or more.

The Thinking Moms’ Revolution (TMR) is a group of twenty-three moms (and one awesome dad) from Montana to Malaysia who all have children with developmental disabilities. Initially collaborating online about therapies, biomedical intervention, alternative medicine, special diets, and doctors on the cutting edge of treatment approaches to an array of chronic and developmental disabilities, such as autism, sensory processing disorders, food allergies, ADHD, asthma, and seizures, they've come together into something far more substantial. Suspecting that some of the main causes may be overused medicines, vaccinations, environmental toxins, and processed foods, they began a mission to help reverse the effects. In the process, they became a tight-knit family dedicated to helping their kids shed their diagnoses.

Here, collected by Helen Conroy and Lisa Joyce Goes, are the stories of their fights to recover their kids from autism and related disorders. With each chapter written by a different TMR member, they share how they discovered each other, what they learned from each other, and why it’s important to have close friends who understand what it's like to parent a child with special needs. You'll read about the their experiences, and learn how their determination and friendships have become a daily motivation for parents worldwide.

Below is an action alert from Autism Action Network. New York city readers, see contact info at the end of this post.

Will NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio keep kids out of daycare for not getting the flu shot that doesn’t work?

New York City is a two weeks away from enforcing an unprecedented and possibly illegal City-only mandate for all pre-school, daycare and Head Start children to get annual flu shots. Several weeks ago, however, a message appeared on the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene website that there will be no penalty for failure to comply until 2016.,

“In 2015, the Health Department’s Bureau of Child Care will enforce the requirement by educating childcare staff during routine inspections. Beginning January 1, 2016, the Department will begin issuing notices of violation to childcare facilities that fail to follow the mandate.”

The only penalty there is for families is refusing to allow children into the covered programs. Now the City appears to be waffling on the no enforcement policy. Several calls to NYC DOMHM officials could not elicit a definitive answer on whether children would be turned away if they do not have evidence of get the flu shot.

It appears that the New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is willing to kick tens of thousands of children out of pre-school daycare and Head Start because they will not have been injected with this year’s annual flu shot, the flu shot that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has already admitted isn’t effective against that the flu strains in circulation this year.

The policy becomes even more absurd given that there is no persuasive data in the medical literature that flu shots have any protective affect on children under two years of age, yet the City regulations require children as young as six-months to get two flu shots. Children who get the inhaled version of the flu vaccine, which contains live flu vaccines and turn anyone who gets it into a potentially infectious flu carrier for 3 weeks will be allowed to attend programs. And even though mercury-containing flu shots are illegal to give to children under three in New York, many flu shots still have mercury that is wildly in excess of the Federal standards for exposure for children older than three.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights... or more.

Reveals the truth behind the controversial issue of vaccine-related injuries.

Proponents declare that vaccines have saved millions of lives. Critics claim that the success is overstated and that vaccines may even be dangerous. Many consider mandatory vaccinations a violation of individual rights or religious principles. Many in public health argue that vaccine mandates are critical and justified and that antivaccination sentiment has resulted in outbreaks of preventable childhood illnesses. Vaccine critics point to mainstream medicine’s denial of and underreporting of vaccine injury.

Vaccine injuries have happened in the past and continue to happen today, and neither the mainstream medical establishment nor the government has ever fully and transparently addressed the issue of vaccine injury. In the 1980s, the United States addressed individual cases of vaccine injury by establishing the NVICP—the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program—a controversial Department of Health and Human Services program. The NVICP was intended to be “non-adversarial, compassionate, and generous” to vaccine-injury victims. However, many vaccine-injury victims and safety advocates believe that the program is not functioning as intended. There are also concerns that the program is keeping the reality of vaccine injury from public inspection.

Vaccine Injuries, a groundbreaking book in the field, reveals cases of vaccine injury from the NVICP—something that has never been offered to the public—and lets readers asses vaccine injuries for themselves.

Note: A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation highlights some of the shortcomings of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) . AoA publishes David Foster’s submission to the pharma/government funded website Shot of Prevention in response to Dorit Reiss’s duplicitous review of the report.

By David Foster

Dorit Reiss has a history of glossing over vaccine safety issues so her approach taken here in commenting on a new GAO report [1,2] on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation program (NVICP) is not surprising. In the past she has used terms like "plaintiff-friendly", "reduced causation standards" and "relaxed evidence rules" to characterize this program. [3] I would argue that no one who is actually familiar with this program, or has personally talked with anyone who has had the misfortune to endure it, would consider Dorit Reiss a credible source after reading these comments.

I postulate here that Dorit's conclusions regarding the NVICP are pre-ordained. I do not believe for a second that she had any intention of actually investigating the NVICP or reporting fairly on the GAO report. Why do I say that? Consider the following. She is commenting on a GAO report, and she includes the link to the report's summary in her article, in which she claims:

"Basically, the court removed the requirement of general causation: petitioners no longer have to show that there is scientific evidence supporting a causal connection. If there is a theory that sounds probable to the Special Masters – lawyers, not scientists – and a temporal connection, a case may win even absent scientific support. [...] But it is a very real relaxation of the petitioners’ burden to prove their case, allowing them to win, on occasion, with just a theory supported by one expert." [4]

As is always the case with Dorit Reiss, it is not necessarily what she says that is most important, but what she leaves out. In this case, she neglects to mention the following (which comes from the SUMMARY PAGE OF THE REPORT SHE IS COMMENTING ON):

"Since fiscal year 1999, HHS has added six vaccines to the vaccine injury table, but it has not added covered injuries associated with these vaccines to the table. This means that while individuals may file VICP claims for these vaccines, each petitioner must demonstrate that the vaccine that was administered caused the alleged injury. HHS is considering adding covered injuries associated with these vaccines; but as of September 2014, it had not published any final rules to do so."

Did you catch that?

The NVICP has a list of "Table Injuries" which is essentially a list of injuries for which HHS will presume causation, for each vaccine recommended by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). Don't you think it would be important to mention that HHS has neglected (I use that word very much on purpose) to add any new injuries to the table for ALL vaccines added since 1999? For the record, that is 15 years ago and in that time SIX new vaccines, most in multiple doses, have been added to the schedule.

In our online conversation Dorit claims that for "regular" (off-table) injuries "the requirement of general causation is basically waived". [3] But this is not consistent with the following from the very GAO report she is supposedly commenting on: "Individuals seeking compensation may submit claims for injuries not listed on the table (called off-table injuries) but they need to demonstrate by the preponderance of the evidence that the vaccine caused the alleged injury."

"Foundation for the National Institutes Of Health Established by the United States Congress to support the mission of the NIH—improving health through scientific discovery in the search for cures—the Foundation for NIH is a leader in identifying and addressing complex scientific and health issues. The foundation is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) charitable organization that raises private-sector funds for a broad portfolio of unique programs that complement and enhance NIH priorities and activities.

Mission Statement: To support the NIH in its mission to improve health, by forming and facilitating public-private partnerships for biomedical research, education and training."

So I have to ask. With these vaccine interests, funding them to the tune of 386 million dollars per year, is it any surprise that the National Child Study did not include data on the overall health outcomes of vaccinated children?

I think it is fair to ask, since the study was designed to look at the impact of chemicals on children's health, did the data being collected present a picture that might be harmful to the bottom line of these pharmaceutical interests? And, did early study results have have any impact on the decision to pull the plug? And, will the raw data that was collected be open for us to view and process?

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights... or more.

Science for Sale by David Lewis PhDWhen Speaker Newt Gingrich greeted Dr. David Lewis in his office overlooking the National Mall, he looked at Dr. Lewis and said: “You know you’re going to be fired for this, don’t you?” “I know,” Dr. Lewis replied, “I just hope to stay out of prison.” Gingrich had just read Dr. Lewis’s commentary in Nature, titled “EPA Science: Casualty of Election Politics.” Three years later, and thirty years after Dr. Lewis began working at EPA, he was back in Washington to receive a Science Achievement Award from Administrator Carol Browner for his second article in Nature. By then, EPA had transferred Dr. Lewis to the University of Georgia to await termination—the Agency’s only scientist to ever be lead author on papers published in Nature and Lancet.

The government hires scientists to support its policies; industry hires them to support its business; and universities hire them to bring in grants that are handed out to support government policies and industry practices. Organizations dealing with scientific integrity are designed only to weed out those who commit fraud behind the backs of the institutions where they work. The greatest threat of all is the purposeful corruption of the scientific enterprise by the institutions themselves. The science they create is often only an illusion, designed to deceive; and the scientists they destroy to protect that illusion are often our best. This book is about both, beginning with Dr. Lewis’s experience, and ending with the story of Dr. Andrew Wakefield.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights...

Readers - Kim here - if you purchase the paperback, send me an email with your mailing address and I will sign and send a bookplate for you to have a signed copy. The book is a good gift for teachers, therapists, docs, family and friends! KimStagliano@gmail.com. Tell me to whom you want the bookplate signed. Thanks!

...and so begins Kim Stagliano’s electrifying and hilarious memoir of her family’s journey raising three daughters with autism. Always outspoken, often touching, and sometimes heartbreaking, Kim Stagliano is a powerful new voice in comedic writing—her “Kimoir” (as she calls it) is the next must-read within the autism community and the literary world at large.

Beginning in January, the long-awaited documentary film Trace Amounts by directors Eric Gladen and Shiloh Levine will screen in theaters across the country. It tells the true story of Eric’s experience with vaccine injury at age 29 that changed his life forever.

Through his harrowing tale of physical and mental anguish, and what it took to get well, he not only learned that what had happened to him didn’t have to happen, but that it had happened to children across the globe. He made it his life’s mission to make it right.

Upon recovery, he gave up his career as an engineer and dedicated his life to telling this story. Using his savings, he bought a tour bus, a camera, hired a film crew, and spent years touring the country interviewing experts and meticulously piecing together the details of what had happened and why.

The result is Trace Amounts, a movie that for those of us who have lived through this will take your breath away…in a good way. It will validate everything you experienced and then some, proving beyond any doubt, this happened: the very institutions that were supposed to look out for our children failed.

This. Is. Our. Story.

The story is told by a man who had nothing to gain by doing it. By a man who was just that, a man when he was vaccine injured, able to articulate exactly how it happened, how it felt, and what it took to get better. An adult who experienced precisely what so many of our kids have, but unlike them, has the voice to tell the world and who feels obligated to do so on their behalf.

It is hard to put into words the gratitude I personally feel towards Eric and his team for doing this. How do you thank someone for advocating on your child’s behalf in such a powerful and meaningful way?

Well, there’s one way. Help us.

We are looking to make this movie a movement. We have the resources. We have an incredible team in place. We have all of the pieces we need ready to go. Now, all we need is you.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to affect the most change.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Here’s what we are looking for:

People willing to host a screening of the film at a movie theater. (Called Film Captains)

People willing to recruit other Film Captains.

People and organizations willing to partner with Trace Amounts and its mission.

People willing to promote the screening of the film.

The movie will officially launch in theaters on February 4, 2015. Our goal is to have hundreds of additional screenings throughout the country by Autism Awareness month in April.

HOW TO HOST

Hosting a screening is free and easy! This story affects everyone and by partnering Theatrical-On-Demand distribution company Gathr Films, we are able to release the film in theaters nationwide wherever and whenever demand exists.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights...

Lina was a precocious toddler—charming, chatty, joyful. At the age of three, in the aftermath of her second MMR vaccine, first came a seizure, and then, to her parents’ horror, the loss of Lina’s ability to play, use language, and control her impulses. Over the next few years they continued to lose Lina. She communicated her acute discomfort by biting, screaming, hitting, laughing maniacally, and throwing violent tantrums. As a single mother, with the help of her ex-husband, Helena Hjalmarsson tirelessly pursued every possible avenue to find a diagnosis, and more importantly a treatment, for her daughter, and the search continues to this day. Lina is nine.

Special schools, restrictive diets, sensory stimulation, relationship-based therapy, gastrointestinal links, homeopathy, and allergy treatment are all explored in detail. Hjalmarsson finds out what helps Lina and what doesn’t. She introduces sign language to Lina. She engages in lengthy daily intensive one-on-one sessions. With the help of her ex, angelic babysitters, Lina’s exceptionally empathetic younger sister, and supportive friends, Hjalmarsson manages to create a meaningful life for Lina, and for herself—a life of love and transcendence.

Lina, for all her challenges, has much to teach, and Hjalmarsson is a receptive student: finding joy in moments of connection, learning to live in the present, taking nothing for granted, accepting what others find unbearable, and finding a strength and spiritual base for inspiration and healing.

Unflinchingly honest and courageous, Finding Lina will open the eyes and hearts and minds of all parents, whether they have a child with autism or not.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights...

Tony Colletti, a good suburban cop and father of a child with autism, finds himself drawn into the controversy over the apparent but rarely acknowledged connection between childhood vaccines and autism. His quest to uncover the truth forces him to risk all he holds dear while confronting corrupt government officials, the powerful pharmaceutical industry, and disturbing elements of his own past. Even while holding down his job and dealing with family crises, Colletti spearheads the drive to contend with industrial espionage, Russian gangsters, and sexual predators preying upon disabled children. He and his colleagues face powerful government and private factions that manipulate the media, fabricate scientific research, conduct shadowy judicial proceedings, and viciously attack those who question vaccine safety.

In this gripping novel, government and industry have formed an unholy alliance that places profit ahead of children’s health, one that compels ordinary Americans to fight back to protect their families and the ideals of justice. In the tradition of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People and echoing the infamous Minamata, Japan, mercury poisoning tragedy, The Autism War reminds us how a handful of dedicated citizens armed with convincing evidence can prevail over a complacent majority and overwhelming odds.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tony Lyons, Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing in New York. His committment to books about autism is..... well - why don't we let him tell you himself. (Thank you to The Thinking Moms' Revolution for the video.)

We will feature one Skyhorse book each day for the next 12 days. Consider it a literary Advent Calendar or a Menorah with twelve lights...

As Andrew Wakefield states in his prologue, “If autism does not affect your family now, it will. If something does not change—and change soon—this is almost a mathematical certainty. This book affects you also. It is not a parochial look at a trivial medical spat in the United Kingdom, but dispatches from the battlefront in a major confrontation—a struggle against compromise in medicine, corruption of science, and a real and present threat to children in the interests of policy and profit. It is a story of how ‘the system’ deals with dissent among its doctors and scientists.”

In the pursuit of possible links between childhood vaccines, intestinal inflammation, and neurologic injury in children, Wakefield lost his job in London’s Royal Free Hospital, his country of birth, his career, and his medical license. A recent General Medical Council ruling stated that he was “dishonest, irresponsible and showed callous disregard for the distress and pain of children.” Maligned by the medical establishment and mainstream media, Wakefield endeavors to set the record straight in Callous Disregard. While explaining what really happened, he calls out the organizations and individuals that are acting not for the sake of children affected by autism, but in their own self-interests.

A retrovirus in autism? You mean, like HIV? That autism might be a non-fatal form of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)?

Let me explain how I came to co-author the book, PLAGUE: One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases, with Dr. Judy Mikvoits.

On October 8, 2009 Dr. Mikovits appeared on a show called Nevada Newsmakers to talk about her recent publication in the journal Science showing an association between a recently discovered retrovirus, XMRV, and patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (more accurately myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME/CFS). In the interview she also talked about the possible implications for autism, as they had been finding evidence of the retrovirus in these children as well.

Mikovits said, There's always the hypothesis that my child was fine, then they got sick, and then they got autism. Interestingly, on that note, if I might speculate a little bit. This might explain why vaccines lead to autism in some children because these viruses live and divide and grow in the lyphocytes, the immune response cells, the B and T cells. So when you give a vaccine you send your B and T cells into overdrive. That's it's job.

Well, if you're harboring one virus, and you replicate it a whole bunch, you've now broken the balance between the immune response and the virus. So you could have had the underlying virus and them amplified it with the vaccine and then set off the disease, such that your immune system could no longer control the infections and create an immune deficiency.

Okay, that got my attention.

I didn't know much about retroviruses at the time so I called the UCSF Pediatric AIDS unit and got their press representative. I sketched out the basic idea of the theory, that kids with autism might have an HIV-like retrovirus and that explained their autism. I didn't even mention the "V" word.

I spent last weekend reading Sharyl Attkisson's wonderful new book, Stonewalled - My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harrassment in Obama's Washington and I couldn't help but hear echoes of the plight of Dr. Judy Mikovits that we detailed in our book, PLAGUE.

To hear Attkisson tell it, there has been a gradual erosion, not just of our civil liberties, but of the media appetite to challenge powerful entities. These entities could be a rich corporate sponsor who pays for advertising on the station or a federal government which seems to grow not just more powerful, but also more unaccountable. It makes me think that those of us in the autism and ME/CFS communities are simply a part of a much larger story, and that our efforts should be centered around finding similar groups which have been marginalized because it served certain corporate or governmental interests.

I want to quote from a section near the end of Attkisson's book and a conversation she had with one of her long-time friends in journalism, David Kirby (author of Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy) about what has been happening over the past several years.

"I couldn't wait," says Kirby, speaking of Obama being elected president in 2008.

A "new era" was being ushered in. At last the GOP was out, and a new era of transparency was about to begin. He was the real deal, a Constitutional scholar who understood the fundamental importance of basic freedoms - the right to information and accountability, for example - to our democracy and its vaunted promise of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Then I tried to get information out of this new gang.

The first six months of 2009 was a daily lesson in rejection, frustration, and anger. I could not get any information out of anyone - not the USDA, not the EPA, and certainly not the White House. FOIA requests, the few that were actually fulfilled, came back with up to 90% of the text "redacted," blacked out like an angry child had taken an extra-wide Sharpie to the pages.

Attkisson goes onto report Kirby's disillusionment with trying to investigate important stories, which eventually caused him to realize he needed to write his own book about the subject.

The most shocking thing I found in researching Dr. Mikovits' story was the violation of the most basic standards of science and open investigation by forces that were opposed to her work. It was just like Kirby getting a document from the government that had 90% of the text "redacted." How is that transparency? And in the way Dr. Mikovits was treated by many of the most powerful people in research I found myself asking, how is this science?

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill introduced by Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., that would allow parents of severely disabled children to save for their long-term care through tax-favored savings accounts similar to 529 accounts used for college savings.

Now the measure, called the ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) Act, will go to the Senate, where it has 75 sponsors, including Burr and Casey.

Burr and Casey first introduced the measure in 2009 and it has stalled since then, even though it has had a lot of bipartisan support. Burr’s office issued a copy of a Politico story that reported that the bill has few opponents now and it’s possible it will pass both chambers before the end of the year.

Burr, the state’s senior Republican senator from Winston-Salem, said in a statement: “I am incredibly pleased that the House passed the ABLE Act this evening. Families of individuals with disabilities often face overwhelming financial burdens associated with the expensive costs of healthcare, education, housing and transportation.

“The ABLE Act will make it easier for parents of disabled individuals to invest in their child’s future, thereby opening the door to a world of opportunities,” he added. “I am confident the Senate will swiftly pass the ABLE Act”

We wish all of our readers a very Happy (American) Thanksgiving. We're grateful for your loyal support, interesting comments and daily readership. Let us know what you're grateful for this year in our comments.

No, I'm not talking about any deep, dark secrets, but this was the first time I would appear at a scheduled event in a bookstore to talk about and sign copies of the book I co-wrote with Dr. Judy Mikovits, PLAGUE - One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases.

The first bookstore, Rakestraw Books in Danville, CA, had more of a planned feel to it. My in-laws went to college with the owner, and it was the type of prestige bookstore that I'd set my sights on long ago. The owner told me that a Saturday afternoon wasn't likely to draw a large crowd, but when I walked into the place and saw twenty stacked copies of my book I gasped. I'm supposed to sell that many books!

The group was composed of some family members, long-time friends, and a few people that I didn't know, but were familiar with the story told in the book. I'd spent the last week developing "the talk" I was going to use in front of general public audiences and I'm pleased to say it went over quite well.

I began by talking about the writers who had influenced me, like Tom Wolfe, who had written The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities, or the works of Dominic Dunne, whose work usually focued on crimes committed among the very wealthy. I told the audience that what I liked so much about those stories is that they were about something crucial; flying into outer space, a crime with racial or class issues at stake, but they also let you to the inner workings of a hidden world. I taked about how one of my favorite lines in The Right Stuff was when a character called the fraternity of test-pilots who put themselves at risk, "a weird mad monk squadron."

I told the audience that when I learned about Dr. Judy Mikovits and the other scientists in and out of government who were trying to find answers to these diseases I felt like I'd found my own "mad monk squadron."

(NOTE: Thanks to many readers who have donated from $5.00 to $500, we're on our way to our matching gift goal of $5,000. Plus your donation to Age of Autism is now TAX DEDUCTIBLE. Please help us meet this wonderful $5,000 matching gift opportunity. Thank you.) From our wonderful benefactor who is matching your donation:

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and this holiday always provides a wonderful opportunity to take stock of the many things for which we are thankful. One of the things on my list again this year is The Age of Autism blog. If you are reading this, there's a good chance that you, too, are very thankful for AoA, which just happens to be the leader in covering all things Autism, including its link to vaccines.

To that end, please raise your hand if:

You value the daily news you are privy to here on Age of Autism, every single day of the year...critically-important news that mainstream media either refuses to report on, or about which they lie.

You would miss tuning in to what AoA has to say every morning with your cup of coffee, and throughout the day, including the great comments from AoA readers.

You value having a site to which you can turn to hear from others walking a similar path as you, which can be life-and-sanity saving because others simply don't get it, or simply don't want to get it.

You are thankful to have avoided vaccine injury in your own children, or in yourself or loved ones, because of what you have learned from others on Age of Autism.

You value having access to excellent articles which you can not only read, but which you can then share via the click of a button with others who want honest, timely, and helpful information.

You value this site that daily strives to get the truth out there about the VACCINE-AUTISM causal connection, which is REAL, which is MANMADE, which is TRAGIC, and which must be STOPPED.

Could this happen in America, given the climate of "autism normalization." Moving is traumatic and can mean leaving behind school and programs and ending up in the back of the line for state services. Have you turned down a move for your child? Or moved and had to start from scratch? Tell us in the comments.

NEW DELHI: Government employees can now attend to their autistic children without worrying about being displaced on account of routine transfers or rotational transfer exercise.

The department of personnel and training (DoPT), in an order issued on Monday, included 'autism' in the term 'disabled' as defined in a June 6, 2014, order that exempts a government employee, who is also a care-giver of disabled child, from the routine exercise of transfer/rotational transfer, subject to administrative constraints.

"The matter regarding the scope of 'disabled' has been examined in consultation with the department of disability affairs. Considering the fact that the autism spectrum disorder child requires constant caregiver support and it would be imperative for government employees to take care of autism spectrum disorder child on continuous basis, it has been decided to include 'autism" in the term 'disabled', as defined in Para 6 of above-mentioned OM dated 06.06.2014," said the DoPT order.

It is true that attorneys representing petitioners have made millions of dollars. However, the Secretary of Health and Human Services altered the Vaccine Injury Table in the mid-1990’s and skewed the balance of the program in favor of the Department of Justice. This made the prospects of petitioner acting Pro Se (in their own behalf), virtually impossible. Cases are now intensively litigated and there is no way for petitioners to succeed without legal counsel who understand the program.

The journalists point to petitioners using expert witnesses of dubious credentials. The current state of affairs is that expert witnesses for petitioners are a dying breed. Why? The article tells you why; expert witnesses for petitioner often face negative consequences for saying that a vaccine caused injury – any injury. Note this excerpt from Harris v. Secretary HHS, No. 07-60V VACCINE CASE Filed: November 28, 2011

“Harris, 2011 WL 2446321 at *35 (emphasis added).

Dr. Kinsbourne’s unchallenged reference to written warnings of the manufacturer of the DTaP vaccine was not an “opinion” about the “toxoiding process,” he simply was repeating the manufacturer’s superior knowledge about those products. In addition, and more important, the Special Master’s condescending mischaracterization of Dr. Kinsbourne’s bona fides is out of line. Dr. Kinsbourne is not “ostensibly” a pediatric neurologist. See id. at *35.

No lesser academic institutions than Oxford University, Duke University Medical Center, the University of Toronto, Harvard Medical School, Boston University, and Tufts University have recognized Dr. Kinsbourne as an expert in this field, contrary to the views of the Special Master. Pet. Ex. 22 at 1-2.

The Special Master also misrepresented Dr. Kinsbourne’s current position in the New School in New York City, where he teaches neuroscience, not psychology, as the Special Master implies. Compare id. at 2 with Harris, 2011 WL 2446321 at *4.

Finally, the Special Master emphasized that Dr. Kinsbourne is “well-known” to special masters, because he testifies frequently in the Vaccine Program for petitioners. See Harris, 2011 WL 2446321 at *4.

Of course, the Special Master made no mention of the fact that the same is true of Dr. Wiznitzer. The Special Master’s proclivity to demean petitioners and their experts when he differs with their opinions is not unique to this case.

Two very recent stories from two different moms are compelling me to write this article. I'll start with the take-home message. If you take your child to the ER or hospital, for something other than for an adverse reaction to a vaccine, it is important that you know beforehand how you will answer one of the first questions that you will be asked by medical staff, which will be, "Is your child up to date on his/her immunizations?" After hearing these two recent stories, I suggest you consider answering with, "Not relevant. I would like you to treat my child based on his/her symptoms versus on his/her vaccination status (and, of course, based on any other known medical issues and/or family history)."

Now, here is my rationale for that suggestion. The first mom took her son to the hospital presenting with 2 major symptoms of tetanus, which over the course of a couple days escalated to more than 10 symptoms of tetanus. Because this child happens to have an Autism diagnosis, the doctors immediately attributed (i.e. wrote off) his symptoms as resulting from "pediatric delusional behavior due to Autism" which they felt explained his spasming "behavior" (i.e. his spasms were voluntary vs. involuntary and/or medical in origin) which led to his rhabdomyolysis (the destruction of striated muscle cells). Apparently, his Autism "behavior" also caused him to not be able to open his mouth properly or chew his food in order to consume needed calories (i.e. Lockjaw). This is not uncommon for parents who have children with Autism to have their children's symptoms, whatever they may be, written off (and often left untreated) due to their Autism diagnosis. Despite initial, and then additional, symptoms of tetanus, because he'd received his DTaP vaccines, and because his blood tests showed titers to tetanus, they refused to consider tetanus, treat for tetanus, document that he had tetanus, or report a suspected case of tetanus to the CDC...ignoring requests from his highly-educated and intelligent mother to please do a proper and reliable assessment for tetanus (a costly test which I think involves injecting the patient's blood serum into a mouse to see if it develops tetanus...not positive about the details of this diagnostic test).

First, having been vaccinated against tetanus does not at all mean that one won't get tetanus...there are many reported cases of tetanus in the vaccinated, i.e. vaccine failure is a reality. Furthermore, vaccine failure and waning "immunity" are the rationale for the many booster shots for the DTaP vaccine, because it is known that it doesn't always "take" and that it wears off (if you even believe that it offered any protection in the first place). Secondly, having titers for tetanus in one's blood does not mean that one is immune to tetanus and therefore won't contract it, not at all. There are many cases of people with high titers for a certain disease who then contract the disease, and, there are also many cases of those with no titers for a certain disease who do not contract the disease even when exposed. Despite these known facts, and quite unbelievably, titer levels post-vaccination are how vaccine efficacy is determined! This mother believes, and rightly so, that the doctors and the hospital do not want to believe/admit that the vaccine for tetanus doesn't work (they don't want to admit to the reality of vaccine failure), they don't want to believe/admit that one who has blood titers for a certain disease can still contract it, and they don't feel legally or morally obligated to properly test for or report this boy's probable case of tetanus to the proper authorities (i.e. to the CDC, which also doesn't want to admit to vaccine failures). The system now in place has been purposefully and shamefully designed to deny and hide vaccine failures (in addition to vaccine injuries and deaths) and to not admit them to the public.

Your public affairs director, Phil Supple, said the State Farm ad featuring the Richmeister “has unintentionally been used as a platform for discussion unrelated to the products and services we provide.”

(Make no mistake, it wasn’t unintentional.)

Bad move for a smart company.

It got me thinking…

Why on earth would the nation’s largest insurer of cars and homes choose to make such a big statement to the nation’s 150+ million parents over an issue that you admit is unrelated to your business?

(NOTE: Your donation to Age of Autism is now TAX DEDUCTIBLE. Please help us meet this wonderful $5,000 matching gift opportunity. Thank you.)

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and this holiday always provides a wonderful opportunity to take stock of the many things for which we are thankful. One of the things on my list again this year is The Age of Autism blog. If you are reading this, there's a good chance that you, too, are very thankful for AoA, which just happens to be the leader in covering all things Autism, including its link to vaccines.

To that end, please raise your hand if:

You value the daily news you are privy to here on Age of Autism, every single day of the year...critically-important news that mainstream media either refuses to report on, or about which they lie.

You would miss tuning in to what AoA has to say every morning with your cup of coffee, and throughout the day, including the great comments from AoA readers.

You value having a site to which you can turn to hear from others walking a similar path as you, which can be life-and-sanity saving because others simply don't get it, or simply don't want to get it.

You are thankful to have avoided vaccine injury in your own children, or in yourself or loved ones, because of what you have learned from others on Age of Autism.

You value having access to excellent articles which you can not only read, but which you can then share via the click of a button with others who want honest, timely, and helpful information.

You value this site that daily strives to get the truth out there about the VACCINE-AUTISM causal connection, which is REAL, which is MANMADE, which is TRAGIC, and which must be STOPPED.

Kent Heckenlively, Anne Dachel , Louis Conte and Wayne Rohde have been as busy as Santa's elves in 2014 writing and editing their books. It's no easy feat to publish a book. A special thank you to Tony Lyons of Skyhorse Publishing who took a risk on a kooky woman (Kim here) with three daughters with autism and published her pink book. And who from there built the very best, most informative and innfluential catalog of titles about autism. Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmsted have another book coming out as well. Stay tuned.

Whether you've been naughty or nice, hang a stocking, spin a dreidel or celebrate Festivus (since we have Seinfeld on our minds), we can all welcome the New Year with a stack of books.

Plague by Kent Heckenlively - One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases

The Autism War - a Novel by Louis Conte - Tony Colletti, a good suburban cop and father of a child with autism, finds himself drawn into the controversy over the apparent but rarely acknowledged connection between childhood vaccines and autism. His quest to uncover the truth forces him to risk all he holds dear while confronting corrupt government officials, the powerful pharmaceutical industry, and disturbing elements of his own past.

The Vaccine Court by Wayne Rohde - The Dark Truth of America's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

Finding Lina by Helena Hjalmarsson - A Mother's Journey from Autism to Hope

Last Thursday I received copies of the book I co-wrote with Dr. Judy Mikovits, PLAGUE - One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases.

To say I'd been worried about what the final product would look like and how it would read is something of an understatement. The day before it arrived I had a splitting headache, felt faint all through the teaching of my science classes, and was just generally grumpy to everybody around me.

But I didn't have to worry.

PLAGUE is everything I'd hoped it would be. It is a smart, compassionate account of various disease communities and Dr. Mikovits fighting for answers to chronic diseases like ME/CFS and autism. I can't help but think there are a confluence of forces, such as Sharyl Attkisson's recent book, STONEWALLED, which are supporting some of the core issues at the heart of PLAGUE.

It's been said lately that there is a great political divide in America between conservatives and liberals, but I think there's a growing unity of belief that many of the important issues of the day are being "brought" to us by special interests. Whether your political bogeyman is big government or big business, we can all agree that having the two of these join forces is bad for everybody.

As a science teacher and an attorney, I have always believed in evidence and reason, regardless of what the noisy crowd might proclaim. In both science and law we have always admired those who fought the powerful voices of their day in the search for truth. Sometimes that truth is about the guilt or innocence of a single person, or about humanity's true place in the cosmos.

Then Jerry Seinfeld had to go and give me the most egregious example possible of said phenomenon. Jerry, whose social and communication skills have made him an almost billionaire, has decided he has autism.

In my blog piece, I remind the reader that autism is a DSM disorder defined and diagnosed according BEHAVIORS. Those behaviors are impaired communication, impaired socialization and stereotyped behaviors. If someone has those behaviors, then they are diagnoseable with an autism spectrum disorder; if not, then they are not diagnosable with an ASD. Pretty simple.

But people have taken the autism label and redefined it to include any number of emotional states, spiritual expressions, physical phenomena, experiential descriptions, identity issues and lots of other things that may or may not be present in some people with an autism diagnosis. They call that “autism” and then demand that the world now define autism in their terms.

Just days after my little rant reminding people that autism is, by definition, a social/communication/behavioral impairment and dysfunction... which means that it gets in the way of functioning... which means it makes it difficult for people to operate functionally in our society... which means that things like success in gainful employment and working relationships are very difficult to come by... Jerry Seinfeld has announced to the world that he fits that bill.

Except he is the opposite of that.

Jerry's communication and social skills have made him THE wealthiest actor in the world. He is worth $820 million dollars. He is arguably the world's most famous living comedian. And yet Jerry Seinfeld now claims he has autism.

I have autism-induced breast cancer (AIBC). While I am not absolutely certain that the 1.9 centimeter lump that grew in my left breast is the result of the stress of raising two autistic children, all indications point in that direction. There is virtually no cancer in my family, I eat organically, I exercise, I’m a good weight. OK, so I live in the toxic dump known as New Jersey, but that is the only other major risk factor. No, the drop in cortisol levels whenever one kid’s school calls or the other kid has a public “flare up” is enough for the cancer to take root.

So, I speak from experience when I say Stage 1 breast cancer has nothing on autism. The differences are vast and significant. Unlike autism, no one is telling me to “celebrate” my cancer. No one is telling me that cancer is “just a different way for cells to grow.” People have told me that we’ve always had cancer, but no one is using that is an excuse for not doing anything about it. No one is blaming me (or my mother) for my cancer. Unlike a person with autism, society does not say my cancer is my fault. Another difference is that in three years, I’ll either be dead or cured. Autism is not tangible, so it neither exists concretely nor definitely leaves the body. Although cancer could do to me what autism did to Avonte Oquendo, the chances of dying from a tumor that I treat properly are small and growing smaller.

There's a Civil War being fought in science over diseases like autism and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and a lot of people inside the field know about it.

But before I go too far into my argument, I'd like to dispel a misconception spread by our enemies that there is some monolithic entity known as "science." From what I've been able to determine, science is better imagined as a collection of "silos", separate from each other, and with messages often going back and forth between them, but no sustained contact with the other silos. Those who live in the silos trust the messages received from the other silos and do not question the messages they receive too deeply.

There is a problem, however. You see, in order to gain access to your particular silo, each member had to endure a rigorous course of intellectual study, which included the skills necessary for the aggressive questioning of received wisdom. Once having gained access to the silo, though, they're not supposed to use those same skills on their superiors, or the pronouncements of the superiors of the other silos.

But nobody tells them that directly.

It's only when one of them makes the mistake of asking a forbidden question that they understand the rules have changed.

For many who make that first mistake of asking a forbidden question, there is the all-too-human element of not wanting to upset people you like and respect, as well as to put your position at risk. Most of those who make the mistake of asking a forbidden question will quickly fall into line and not make that error again.

You'll be seeing more Skyhorse books from Age of Autism contributors and Editors very soon. From Amazon:

“Here you have it, in black and white: the unfairness, the corruption and system-wide bias, documented for the world to see. The VICP is in need of complete reform, or it needs to be abolished altogether. This book may well trigger the outcry in the public to start that much-needed process. Injustice cannot be addressed until the spotlight is pointed directly at the problem. And Mr. Rohde has done that brilliantly. He has done a great service in writing this book. The VICP can no longer hide in the dark, protected by silence. People can now know the truth, and that is a huge victory. This is a must-read book.” —Sylvia Pimentel, vice-president of the California chapter of the National Autism Association, and founder and moderator of Sac-Autism-Biomed.

“Wayne Rohde has lifted the veil over the murky tort reform experiment known as the “Vaccine Court.” In exposing the program’s imbalanced liability protection for powerful vaccine manufacturers, he has performed a valuable public service.” —Robert J. Krakow, attorney and coauthor of Unanswered Questions from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury

Is it Fall already? I could’ve sworn I was just going broke buying last year’s Christmas gifts and here we are again. (I guess that’s what happens when your parents both like to keep busy and give you an abundance of siblings.)

With a young brother on the spectrum following a biomedical treatment plan (and living my own life gluten- and dairy-free), the holiday season can often be one of the most challenging times of the year. There’s all the food, the family members that lack respect for the GFCF diet, the relatives that don’t quite understand Ethan, all the food, the ever-changing schedules, and then there’s all the food. Not to mention all the dirty looks from family when Ethan slips some sweets and then goes nuts (when yeast and hyperactivity become his two best friends).

I opened it up to you guys, via social media, asking for suggestions for beating the holiday pandemonium. Some said to skip the family gatherings and go on vacation. That certainly sounds nice, but who has the extra money? Some of you suggested passing out handouts to family members on autism. Please. My family believes Ethan just needs a “spankin’” and you want me to give them a handout?

Reality is, going out of town for the entire holiday season is just too expensive and reasoning with the family is likely going to end with aunt Gerald punching another hole through the wall. So you always want to come prepared.

The best thing to carry with you this holiday season is a survival bag. And in that bag make sure to pack:

We invite you to set forth your proposal for the man or woman you would like to see take a seat on IACC. We've had too many years of rocks in our sack instead of candy - not even Smartees! Below is the IACC call for nominations. Who will represent our children as they age? Who will ask the hard questions about causation, treatment, prevention along with life issues such as employment, housing and life after the parents die? And a sincere thank you to Lyn Redwood for her tireless dedication to our children as she steps down.

The Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking nominations of individuals to serve as non-federal public members on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, a federal advisory committee established in accordance with the Combating Autism Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-416, PDF – 49 KB) and reauthorized by the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education and Support Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-157, PDF – 211 KB). The Office of the Secretary has directed the Office of Autism Research Coordination (OARC) of the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health to assist the Department in conducting an open and transparent nomination process. Nominations will be accepted between October 1, 2014 and November 14, 2014.

Who Is Eligible?

Nominations of new non-federal public members are encouraged, and current non-federal public members may also be re-nominated to continue to serve. Self-nominations and nominations of other individuals are both permitted. Only one nomination per individual is required. Multiple nominations for the same individual will not increase likelihood of selection. The Secretary may select non-federal public members from the pool of submitted nominations and other sources as needed to meet statutory requirements and to form a balanced committee that represents the diversity within the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) community. Those eligible for nomination include leaders or representatives of major ASD research, advocacy and service organizations, parents or guardians of individuals with ASD, individuals on the autism spectrum, healthcare and service providers, educators, researchers and other individuals with professional or personal experience with ASD. In accordance with White House Office of Management and Budget guidelines (FR Doc. 20

I want you to look to the left of this article and you will see a link to a YouTube video which reads, "CONVERSATION WITH THE AUTHORS OF PLAGUE." Click on it now and watch all two minutes and fifty-three seconds of it.

Really. Do it now. I'll just check my e-mail while you're doing that. (Imagine sound of me whistling and a computer keyboard tapping.)

Finished? Good. Let's talk.

I know that many of us are having very difficult lives and can't imagine that anybody else can fully understand our suffering. You're wrong. There are others who suffer. Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) live very difficult lives as do the few brave scientists like Dr. Judy Mikovits who have struggled to solve the mysteries of that condition, as well as autism.

And you know what they've gotten for it? The patients have been called crazy, and Dr. Mikovits has endured character assassination, unlawful incarceration, financial ruin, and professional exile for fighting for the truth. We are all victims of the same oppressor.

But I'm not writing this just to tell you how terrible things are in today's world. You know that. What I'm giving all of us is a way to fight. The book, "PLAGUE - One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS, Autism and Other Diseases" is nothing less than a guided missile of truth streaking towards the very heart of an arrogant CDC and NIH and the scientific journals controlled by them. It's also a helluva read which will attract people outside of our advocacy communities.

Did you hear what I said? It will attract people OUTSIDE OF OUR COMMUNITIES! It is a behind the scenes story of out-of-control agencies and journals who believe their misdeeds will never be revealed. In writing it I often felt like I was some secret agent going behind the Iron Curtain of the scientific community to talk to leading researchers who would tell me what was really going on.

Dr. Brian Hooker, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, and attorney James Moody announced today they have sent a complaint by Federal Express to Dr. Harold Jaffe, Associate Director for Science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as Dr. Don Wright, Acting Director of the Office of Research Integrity at the Department of Health and Human Services, claiming research misconduct in the 2004 paper, "Age at First Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination in Children with Autism and School-Matched Control Subjects: A Population-Based Study in Metropolitan Atlanta," which was subsequently published in the journal, Pediatrics.

The allegations are horrifying, not just for the millions of families who deal with autism on a daily basis, but for the picture it paints of a government agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), devoid of any shred of scientific integrity or what we once used to call "honor" in this country.

If these claims are shown to be true, we will be looking at nothing less than the greatest crime committed in the history of our republic, and a dark page in science which will be remembered for centuries to come.

In 2001, a group at the CDC, headed by Dr. Frank DeStefano, and including Dr. William Thompson, Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, Dr. Tanya Karapurkar Bhasin, and Dr. Coleen Boyle planned to test the hypothesis that the earlier administration of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) shot was linked to an increase in autism rates. This research was prompted by the work of Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues, suggesting a link between autism and MMR shots, and his call for additional research to answer the question. The CDC scientists came up with that plan and recorded it in a document dated September 5, 2001, but did not follow it because of troubling findings among certain groups.

When scientists set out to test a hypothesis they come up with a research plan. That plan is supposed to be followed, and if for some reason it is not, there must be an explanation of why not. It is one of the basic tenets in science. You show EVERYTHING. You do not CONCEAL DATA. If there is a hell for scientists, this is the sin which sends you to the very lowest regions.

Almost 2 months ago it was revealed that senior CDC scientist Dr. Thompson had been talking with Dr. Brian Hooker of Focus Autism on allegations that the CDC had manipulated data to avoid showing a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Since then there has been a lot of discussion of how involved Dr. Thompson really is. Was he a true whistleblower or was he a man reaching out that just got caught in the middle? Recent revelations from the legal complaint filed with the CDC have offered more insight on Dr. Thompson's involvement.

The complaint filed to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI)See ORI Complaint pdf here) centers on evidence of malfeasance by the CDC in hiding research data showing a link between autism and the MMR vaccine. The ORI is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services that oversees research integrity in several government agencies including the CDC. These are the people that investigate research fraud and they can debar doctors and force papers to be retracted. The majority of their judgments are against university researchers, but there are cases against researchers in the government although less common.

In this ORI complaint several new pieces of information about Dr. Thompson came out. One of the biggest ones is that Dr. Thompson had not only provided the original data set to Dr. Brian hooker, but reviewed and approved Dr. Hooker’s reanalysis paper also.

“Dr. Hooker’s paper was reviewed and approved by Dr. Thompson.”(1)

The fact that Dr. Thompson had reviewed and approved the release of the research paper shows that he was well aware that this paper was about to be published. This makes it extremely difficult for the original publisher of the paper, Translational Neurology, to support their decision for retracting it and also raises several other questions. It was also noticed that the paper is now available on the Translational Neurology website with a simple note at the top about the retraction. The website also has a nice red button that states it as one of the most accessed papers on their website, which seems odd for a retracted piece.

Could this be that they know there is much more evidence coming out? It was previously revealed that Dr. Thompson had provided thousands of documents to Congressman Posey, this is hundreds of thousands of pages. That would take several boxes to contain. You don't just walk out of the CDC with the boxes of restricted data in a day or two, especially after a whistleblower in that department is announced, and definitely if you were the one named as the whistleblower. To have gathered this information and have “secured” it must have taken Dr. Thompson weeks if not months. So at the very least he knew the research paper was coming out and was working to save information. Not the actions of someone caught off guard.

In every great conflict there is an event which fundamentally alters the balance of forces between the two sides.

As England struggled in the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill wondered how he could get the industrial might and manpower of the United States to stand with him against Nazi Germany. The Japanese obliged him by bombing Pearl Harbor, then as America wondered if they should also join the fight against Germany, Hitler made the decision easy by declaring war on the United States. England and America would stand together through that long and bitter conflict.

It was with this idea in mind that I co-wrote, PLAGUE, a book which has the potential to unite the communities of those who suffer with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), autism, Lyme disease, and prostate cancer. In the person of Dr. Judy Mikovits I found a fearless and compassionate scientist who would not rest while so many suffered.

PLAGUE does speak not with an "inside voice." PLAGUE kicks down doors, tosses in a few flash grenades, and rushes in with a SWAT team. It's important to catch the bad guys in the act. When there are millions who suffer every day with these diseases, and our public health authorities offer nothing, anything less than a full-out effort is a crime.

And when our mandarins of public health tell us to be patient, allowing them time to figure out how they can change the parameters of a study already in progress, (because it will reveal inconvenient truths) we the people, must not let them get away with it. You see, those who work in "public health" work for us, the public.